Puerto Rican food isn't well represented on the West Coast—its practitioners have traditionally settled in New York, Boston and other northeastern locations, not here—but a fragrant and friendly purveyor of this lusty Caribbean cuisine operates two venues in the pan-Latin melting pot of downtown San Rafael.

Sol Food (732 Fourth St. and 901 Lincoln Ave., 451-4765) isn't a high-concept, low-quality novelty. Housed in cheerful West Indies settings of peeling pastels, weathered ironwork, mambo music and enormous potted foliage—it's like entering a Caribbean courtyard—the two outlets serve absolutely creditable examples of the island's Afro-Hispanic comidas criollas (home cooking).